How to watch Penn State basketball host Iowa
The catch for Penn State is, of course, how to maintain its recent success. Winners of back-to-back games against Big Ten competition for the first time this season, first topping Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., before knocking off Indiana, also on the road, the Nittany Lions have struggled to do so throughout the 2023-24 campaign.
Fixated on providing a steadying influence to his side ahead of a Thursday night game with Iowa (7 p.m., BTN), Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades is eager to take his next shot at doing so nonetheless.
Balancing the team’s success against the inconsistency that has plagued it throughout its Big Ten slate, Rhoades laid out the approach he believes can help deliver more of it.
“Well, it starts with me explaining to the guys. The number one thing is, why did we have success on the road? Let’s stick to that plan,” Rhoades said. “You want to be hungry. But you want to have great humility. And let’s go get another one.
“You gotta appreciate what happened, you gotta appreciate how you went about it, you gotta appreciate your teammates and your approach. But we gotta show great humility with it because just because you won the last game doesn’t guarantee you winning the next game.”
Iowa understands the sentiment. Fran McCaffery’s side has enjoyed a short break, last knocking off Ohio State at Carver-Hawkeye on Feb. 2, 79-77. But, like the Nittany Lions, the win came on the other side of a seesaw effort that has seen losses follow wins on six separate occasions this season.
Here is a snapshot look at the Nittany Lions ahead of Thursday night’s tilt:
Game time, how to watch: Penn State (11-11 overall, 5-6 B1G, NET 100) vs. Iowa (13-9, 5-6 B1G, NET 60)
Venue: Bryce Jordan Center
Tip time: 7:00 p.m. ET – Thursday, Feb. 8
TV: Big Ten Network – Jason Horowitz (play by play) & Shon Morris (analyst)
RADIO: Penn State Sports Network – Steve Jones (play by play) & Dick Jerardi (analyst)
NATIONAL RADIO: Sirius XM Ch. 372 & SXM App Big Ten Radio
LIVE STATS: StatBroadcast | Live Stats
GAME NOTES: Penn State | Iowa
What is the Penn State-Iowa spread?
The Nittany Lions are 1-point underdogs to Iowa on Thursday evening. And, the over/under betting total is 162 points.
Injury report
Penn State guard Kanye Clary has missed each of the past two games after suffering what appeared to be a head injury in the final minutes of the Nittany Lions’ loss to Minnesota at the BJC on Saturday, Jan. 27. Asked about Clary’s status for the Iowa game, Rhoades maintained that the sophomore scorer remains “day-to-day.”
“Day-to-day, where we’re at now,” Rhoades said. “We’re going to jump into practice here in a little bit and then go from there. So right now, I’m just gonna say day-to-day and we’ll see.”
Playing in 20 games this season, Clary has averaged a team-high 18.4 points per game. He also has 3.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per outing.
Maybe unintentionally, Rhoades offered some perspective on the likelihood of Clary’s return for Thursday night’s game later in his press conference. “We’ve had two good games. We played very unselfish, we played for each other. And we had a good player out for two games. He’s gonna come back now,” Rhoades said. “We need him to give us a great lift and we gotta continue to play the right way all the time. I’m excited to see how these guys are gonna move forward.”
